Come, run with me, O stalwart youth and maiden
And run with me, O children, young and fleet;
And even ye, with years so heavy-laden,
Now struggle yet to use your failing feet.

Come, crowding forth from all the lanes and alleys;
Come, hurrying out from all the fields and woods;
And make your paths in all the pathless valleys,
And leave your tracks on all the trackless floods.

For unto earth has come a mighty Wonder,
And sweeter words are uttered now by God,
Than when of old he spake to us in thunder,
And scourged the faithless nations with his rod.

Oh, come and see the Lily he has planted —
Eve's fairer Daughter, blooming in the land;
And make again the prayers that he has granted,
And ask the world's redemption at his hand.

For lo, the stars, in heaven's serenest story,
Are grouped to crown this Womanhood sublime;
And lo, the sun has woven of his glory
A robe to be her raiment for all time.

Oh, come and see a Spotless Virgin kneeling;
Oh, come and hear an angel at her side;
The earliest tidings of our joy revealing —
The herald of the glorious Christmas-tide.

Come here, for this is Mary and no other,
And she will nurse the Lord upon her knee;
And Jesus will bequeath her as a Mother
To us upon the cross of Calvary.

Then let us run and greet her with the angel:
" Ave, Maria; give to us thy Son"
O'er all the earth ring out the loud evangel —
The gates of hell are closed, and heaven is won.